This invention relates to a winding method and apparatus for multifilament fiber bundles, and particularly to a method and apparatus for winding a plurality of tow carbon fiber bundles efficiently on a plurality of winders each.
When a plurality of filaments are each to be wound on bobbins on a winder (inclusive of a case where winding is recommenced by changing a filament from a fully wound bobbin to a new empty bobbin in a continuous winding process), it is necessary that a first part of the filament being wound be removed as a waste yarn. Such waste yarn has heretofore been sucked on an aspirator as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 29627/1979 or removed by winding it on a supplemental waste spool provided on a bobbin side of the winder as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 28849/1982.
However, if the above filament is a fiber bundle to which fibers are aggregated in a tow, and a plurality of the fiber bundles are wound concurrently on each winder, since the fiber bundle has a large volume as compared with a single filament, such an aspirator may become clogged and prevent a smooth winding operation. Then in the case where a waste spool is mounted individually on each winder, the capacity of the waste spool cannot be increased, and thus a waste yarn of the fiber bundle with large volume cannot be removed thoroughly. Moreover, it is a complicated and inefficient operation to remove the waste yarn at every winder and is particularly so in the case of a fiber bundle having large strength like a carbon fiber bundle, where the processes of cutting and removing waste yarn wound on the waste spool quickly dulls the edge of a cutter and the environment is polluted by the scattered chipped fibers.